Walmart’s $1T Market Cap Parade Gets Hijacked as Amazon Steals the Biggest Trophy in Retail

“Ok… just hear me out… we steal every single one of Target’s best suppliers…” -Walmart CEO John Furner trying to save face

Wally World (-3%)  just dropped its first earnings report under new CEO John Furner…And at first glance, it should’ve had all the rednecks in Bentonville popping fireworks in the parking lot. The company (started by a man who flew his personal plane around the country to steal other company’s secrets) beat on both lines. EPS came in at $0.74 vs. $0.73 expected, and revenue hit $190.7B vs. $190.6B expected.

Things looked pretty gucci for the full fiscal year as well. The Denver Bronco’s owners suite rang up $715.9B in revenue (above the $713B forecast) and posted $2.64 in adjusted EPS (a penny ahead). Not shabby for a company that just crossed the $1 trillion market cap flex line and recently got invited to the cool tech kids table at lunch (read: the Nasdaq).

So why’d the stock trade down?

Because guidance walked in looking like Rosie O’Donnell when shareholders were expecting Transformers-era Megan Fox.

(Source: Yahoo Finance)

For fiscal Q1 2027, Walmart sees revenue growth of 3.5% to 4.5%… Wall Street was modeling 5% (awkward). For the full year 2027? Same energy. Revenue growth of 3.5% to 4.5%, while the suits wanted closer to $2.97 in EPS. Translation: Walmart beat the quarter… then politely asked everyone to lower their expectations.

Management tried to save face by labeling a giant disclaimer on the release. You know the usual… but the tariffs, inflation’s bad, the rising tensions in the middle east, interest rates are a joke… Basically: “We run a $700B machine. The world is messy.”

But even though the stock is getting dragged through the mud right now, a few metrics rode in like a knight in shining armor to save the day.

For instance, U.S. same-store sales jumped 4.6%, beating estimates. Transactions rose 2.6%. And the big mouth dropper was e-commerce, which jumped another 27% in the U.S. For all you analytics people, that’s the 15th straight quarter of double-digit digital growth. Not to be left out… store-fulfilled delivery surged more than 50% and Walmart Connect advertising revenue climbed 41%.

So what's the takeaway? It means Walmart is quietly building a side-hustle empire on top of the main business. Groceries pay the bills. Ads and logistics drive the margin expansion.

And that shift shows up in who’s walking through the doors. CFO John David Rainey also chimed in to say that higher-income households are showing up in bigger numbers. Most of that fashion growth came from households making north of $100K. That’s a YUGE shift from what we were seeing last year. On the flip side, management admitted there’s pressure on the poors (read: lower-income consumers) as it appears a little K-shaped economy energy is creeping in.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Meanwhile, there’s another headline hovering in the background. For the first time ever, Amazon technically topped Walmart in annual revenue ($716.9B vs. $713B). Yes, Amazon has cloud revenue padding the stat sheet… but the symbolism matters.

And Walmart knows it. Hence the e-commerce push. The marketplace expansion. The ad business ramp. The $30B buyback authorization.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a horrendous first quarter under new CEO John Furner. But when your market cap just hit $1 trillion for the first time, investors aren’t looking for “solid.” They’re expecting fireworks. And unfortunately for him… he delivered a Roman candle.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon as mentioned in the article.